RAVEN CHAPTER 15 GUIDED NOTES: GENES AND HOW THEY WORK

Raven 9th edition

1. Briefly describe the function of each type of RNA.

a. rRNA ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b. mRNA ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c. tRNA ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

2. Explain the “Central Dogma” of biology. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Give an overview of transcription. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Give an overview of translation. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Out of the work of a number of scientists, we have now determined that the four “letters” of the DNA “alphabet” translates to the twenty “letters” of the amino acid “alphabet”. Briefly explain how this works. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

6. Briefly describe how the experimental works of Francis Crick and Marshall

Nirenberg “cracked the genetic code”. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

7. Why is the genetic code said to be universal? What is the significance of this?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. The enzyme which transcribes the DNA is_____________________________

9. The strand of DNA that is transcribed is called______________________

10. The strand of DNA that is not transcribed is called___________________

11. List the highlights of the three stages of transcription.

a. Initiation ___________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

b. Elongation _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c. Termination ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. Describe the significant differences between transcription in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. ___________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. Make notes on the following diagram to describe the model of a

transcription bubble.

14. Describe what happens to the RNA transcript, in eukaryotes, before it

leaves the nucleus. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. What is the advantage of the 5’ cap and poly A tail? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Identify and briefly describe the steps of translation.

a. Initiation ___________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

b. Elongation ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

c. Translocation ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d. Termination ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17. Identify the roles of the players of the translation process.

a. Transfer RNA ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

b. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

c. Ribosomes ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18. Make notes on the following diagrams to describe the process of translation

19. Distinguish between exons and introns. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20. Describe the mechanism for splicing RNA. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

21. What does alternative RNA processing do for cells?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

22. How does protein synthesis differ between prokaryotes and eukaryotes?

a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________________

d. _________________________________________________________

e. _________________________________________________________

f. _________________________________________________________

21. Use the diagram to trace the flow of chemical information from a gene to its protein product.